III. The Life of Jesus
A. The "Certain" Facts
Sanders, Jesus and Judaism, 11 listed as "almost indisputable facts about Jesus" the following:
1. Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.
2. Jesus was a Galilean who preached and healed.
3. Jesus called disciples; he spoke of 12 of them.
4. Jesus confined his activity to Israel.
5. Jesus was engaged in dispute about the temple.
6. Jesus was crucified outside Jerusalem by the Roman authorities.
7. After his death Jesus' followers continued in an identifiable movement.
8. At least some Jews persecuted at least parts of the mew movement (Gal. 1:13,22; Phil. 3:6), and it appears that this persecution lasted at least to near the end of Paul's career (2 Cor. 11:24; Gal. 5:11; 6:12; cf. Mt. 10:17; 23:34).
To which Craig A. Evans, "What Did Jesus Do?" in Michael J. Wilkins and J. P. Moreland (eds.), Jesus Under Fire. Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus, 1995: 103 thinks a few more may be added:
"I think that it is highly probable that Jesus was viewed by the public as a prophet, that he spoke often of the kingdom of God, that his temple controversy involved criticism of the ruling priests, and that t he Romans crucified him as "king of the Jews."
The most important of Jesus' activities can be gathered into two major groupings: (1) the proclamation of the kingdom and the appointment of the twelve apostles; and (2) controversy with the ruling priests and a Roman execution. The evidence for these activities is strong enough...that they may with confidence be designated "facts." It will also become clear that these two groupings of activities are closely related, with the first leading inexorably to the second.
B. The Infancy Narratives
For a variety of reasons, among them the fact that the events they purport to describe are both contradicted and ignored in the very same Gospels and the rest of the NT, doubt has been cast on the historical w orth of the genealogies of Jesus (which do not agree) and generally on the "infancy narratives" found in Mt. (1:1-2:23) and Lk. (1:5-2:52).
C. The Public Life of Jesus
1. The Baptism by John
Hollenbach 1982: 198-199: "There can be no more certain fact of Jesus'' life than his baptism by John. Considering the apologetic that surrounds the event in the four gospels and other early Christian literature, we can be sure that no early Christians would ever have invented it."
Who and what was John "the baptizer"? Cf. Josephus' important independent testimony (Ant. 18.5.2 116-119) Why did Jesus present himself for baptism? Were Jesus and some of his people originally followers of the Baptist? (cf. Jn.1:15,30,5-40; Act s 1:21). What was Jesus evolving relationship with John (cf. Jn. 1:19-39;3:22-30). Was Jesus a Johannine baptizer? (Jn.3:22,26;4:1) John's death (cf. Mk. 6:14-29) and its aftermath (cf. Acts 18:24-28; 19:1-7). How was John subsequently viewed in the Jesus movement? As the miracle-working and "ascended" prophet Elijah whose return was promised in Malachi 4:5-6? (Jesus says yes in Mk.9:11-13; Mt.11:7-15;17:10-13; in Jn.1:21 John emphatically says no).
2. Jesus' Basic Proclamation: "The Kingdom [or Rule (basileia)] of God is upon you. Repent and believe the Gospel." (Mk. 1:14; cf.Mt.4:17,10:7
When is the Kingdom? Now? (= realized eschatology) (Mk. 1:14; Mt.12:28; Lk.10:23-24) Soon? (imminent eschatology) (Mk.9:1; 24:34; Mt.8:11; Lk.13:28-29; Thess. 4:15-17) Now and soon ? (Lk.17:20-25) Later? (future eschatology).
The notion that "the kingdom of God is at hand" is clearly central to Jesus' message, and it is the interpretation of that phrase that sorts out some of the most basic understandings of who Jesus was or what he int ended.
If the kingdom of God has been realized in the here and now, then the ethical teachings of Jesus are the heart of that realization: Jesus is the kingdom and what he is preaching are its statutes, its long-term code of behavior. It is from this context that a church (the institutionalization of that code) emerges, as either 1) Jesus' own foundation (cf. Mt. 16: 18-19), or 2) his immediate followers' understanding of what he intended.
Many readers of the Gospels, on the other hand, when they read passages like Mt. 10:23 or Mk. 9:1 and 13:30, think that Jesus was preaching the onset of an imminent "end-time" (eschaton) in the sense of a cosmic upheaval followed by the Judgment and the glorification of Israel (with the ingathering of the Gentiles; see below). This would give Jesus' teachings the quality of a kind of "emergency ethics," a code for the short time before the End.
It is apparent that many of Jesus' first followers subscribed to this view (cf. 1 Thess. 4: 13 - 5:11); what is equally apparent is that the End did not occur in any identifiable form (cf. Jn. 21: 20-22 (expectation), 23 (adjustment). At this point, many Jews depart the movement --it is still a principal Jewish argument against the Messiahship of Jesus-- and those who remained had to adjust to the new circumstances. The apocalyptic passages in Mk. and Mt., for example, could be read as a reference to a Second Coming (Parousia: cf. the future coming of the Son of Man in Mt.24:23-31; Lk.17:23-24; 21:27.), while the community began to organize itself for the long haul (what some have called the emergence of "early Catholicism" and is most ap parent in Lk-Acts).
The Eschaton:
Jesus' apocalyptic visions and eschatological discourse: Mk.13:1-37; Mt.24:1-25:46; Lk. 21:5-38.
After the ingathering of the Gentiles?: Rom. 11:25-26; and see the exclusion of Israel in Mt. 8:11-12.
Cf. the biblical passages predicting that Israel will be a light to the "nations" (= Gentiles); her salvation will go forth to the ends of the earth: Isa. 49:6; cf. Isa. 51:4; Isa. 2:2 ff.; Micah 4:1. The Gentiles may be added to Israel and thus be saved: Isa. 56:6-8; Zech. 2:11; 8:20-23; Isa. 45:22; Tobit 14:6 ff; 1 En. 90:30-33. And one passage which predicts a mission to the Gentiles, Isa. 66:19.
The NT passages are more ambivalent. In Mt. 10:18 the disciples will bear testimony before the Gentiles; in Mk. 13:10 & Mt. 24:14 the gospel must be preached to the Gentiles; and in Mk. 14:9 the gospel will be preached to the whole world. On the other hand, there are those passages in which Jesus is said to limit his activity or that of the disciples to Israel: Mt. 10:5,23 (which seems not even to allow time for a Gentile mission); Mt. 15:21-28 (the healing of the Canaanite woman's daughter, where Jesus is reported to have said "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel"); Mt. 8:5-13 (another healing at a long distance).
3. The Twelve
The number twelve (1 Cor. 15:5; Mt. 19:28; Lk.6:13; Acts 1:20-26); the uncertainty over their names (Mk.3:16-19; Mt.10:2-4; Jn.1:40-51); their stated mission (Mk.6:7-13; Mt.9:35-10:42; Lk.9:1-6 [cf. Lk.10:1-20 on " the 72"); "Do not travel to the Gentiles" (Mt.10:5-6; but cf. Mt.28:19); their function (eschatological?) (Mt.19:28).
4. Jesus' Ethical Teachings
Paula Fredriksen, From Jesus to Christ, 99-100: "The (ethical) teachings (of Jesus) express traditional Jewish beliefs (for instance, the support of the poor is a religious obligation or interpretations of such beliefs put forward by other first-century apocalyptically-minded Jews, and so fit Jesus' historical context. The Essenes too, for example, embraced an ethic of celibacy motivated by a desire to prepare for the coming Kingdom, and they too minimized status distinctions within their community by eschewing private property. The evangelists, of course, see Jesus teaching such things in contradistinction to Judaism ("You have heard it said, but I say...."), but these precepts are better understood as the extension or intensification of the ethics encoded in the Torah....This intensification of ethical norms in the interests of moral regeneration is a phenomenon typical within communities committed to the belief that time is rapidly drawing to a close."
a. Content
See: Mt.5-7 (Sermon on the Mount),10, 13, 18, 24-25."
Beatitudes: Mt.5:3-10;Lk.6:20-23"
Parables: Mk.4 (espec.4:10);Mt.13:1-52 (espec. 13:10-15,34); a pointed parable: Lk.20:9-19.
b. And the Law: "I do not come to abolish but to complete..." (Mt.5:17-19
"Corrections" of Mosaic law: Mt. 5:21-48 & compare Mk.10:11, which "corrects" Torah, with Mt.5:31-32 & 19:7-9, which corrects Mk.; (non-)abolition of the dietary laws (Mk.7:17-23); forgiveness of sins ( Mt.9:2-8;Lk.7:48-49); standard summary of Torah: Mk.12:28-31; Mt.22:34-40; Lk. 10:25-28.
i. Did Jesus break the Law?
E. P. Sanders, Jewish Law from Jesus to the Mishna, 1990: 2: "Scholarship has long been divided between the view that conflict with the Pharisees over the law was a cardinal element in the hostility which led to Jesus' death, and the opposite: that such conflicts were minor and would not have been seriously regarded...Edouard Schweitzer, for example, proposed that:
there can be no doubt that Jesus, through his entire conduct, again and again ostentatiously transgressed the Old Testament commandment to observe the Sabbath and had little concern for the Old Testament laws relating to ritual purity. (Jesus , ET, London, 1971: 32)
"(But) many other scholars, such as Geza Vermes, have found no instances in which Jesus broke a biblical commandment, though he clashed with others over "customs." It is not difficult to judge between these positions: Schweizter's is without foundation, Vermes' is hard to fault."
ii. Did Jesus Abolish the Law
Paula Fredriksen, From Jesus to Christ, 107-108: "Most New Testament scholars, taking their cue from the controversy stories, have tried to locate that offense [that brought about Jesus' death] in Jesus' suppose d attitude toward the Law. Since Jesus both forgave sins and taught on his own authority, this explanation goes, he essentially announced in his person and his ministry that the Law had come to an end. Henceforward salvation would be accorded to whoever responded in faith to him. In other words, by proclaiming the Gospel, Jesus at least implicitly proclaimed also the end of Judaism as a religion, and therefore of Israel as God's elect. Jews hearing such a message, Jesus knew, would naturally kill the messenger; and that, through the agency of Rome, is what they did."
"There are two problems with this proposal, one methodological and the other historical, and they are linked. Methodologically, it is out of joint with the times. It imports Paul and a particular understanding of his mid-first century mission to the Gentiles of the Diaspora back into the Palestinian intra-Jewish mission of Jesus. Paul argues against his fellow Christian missionaries, not Jews per se, that Gentiles need not be circumcised in order to enter the community of the redeemed (Gal.1:6). Baptism suffices...But Jesus had never addressed this issue. He had never had to. His mission did not extend to the Gentiles..."
"Further, Paul never defends his Law-free mission to the Gentiles by an appeal to Jesus, nor does he claim that such was even implicit in any of Jesus' teaching. [emphasis added] Here we touch upon the historical problem with the proposition under review. If Jesus during his ministry had abrogated the Torah, neither his own disciples nor Paul himself knew of it. Paul had to argue his case regarding the Gentiles and Torah some twenty years after Jesus' death before Christians in Jerusalem who had known Jesus "in the flesh," namely James, Peter, John and possibly the "false brethren" as well (Gal. 2:1-10; cf. vv. 11-14)...It is difficult to sustain the position that Jesus during his lifetime publicly taught against the Torah, and thu s that such teachings were a source of mortal conflict between him and his contemporaries."
iii. Jesus and the Pharisees
What characterized them: fastidious observance based on oral/ancestral tradition (Josephus & cf. Mk.7:4-5).
Jesus' criticisms of them: Mk.7:9-13;Mt. 6:1-4;15:1-20;23; their criticisms of him: Mk.2:15-23; Mt.12:1-14: